Wireless Video Surveillance Network Provides Evidence in Dallas Mugging

Dallas police arrested a man accused of mugging an 18-year-old ROTC cadet who had collapsed in a seizure outside the downtown Greyhound bus station last week. The crime was captured on the city's wireless video surveillance system, which enabled the swift arrest. This is one of many crimes that have been caught on camera since the wireless network was installed in downtown Dallas and the Jubilee Park neighborhood last year, as it provides police with the capability to monitor activity in real time.

The Dallas City Council and the local police department implemented a wireless video surveillance system consisting of 32 Firetide mesh nodes and 40 Sony cameras placed at major intersections in downtown Dallas. The cameras connect to Firetide wireless mesh nodes that operate on secure frequencies unavailable for public use. The nodes form a resilient wireless mesh network - without which it would have been too difficult and cost-prohibitive to install the cameras where they are needed.

Wireless mesh equipment vendor Firetide Inc. is seeing rapid adoption of wireless municipal surveillance networks similar to the network deployed in Dallas, a city with a population of 1.2 million. Serving as a force-multiplier, these intelligent networks are helping save lives and prosecute criminals in incidents similar to the recent mugging of the teenage ROTC cadet. The City of Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications implemented a similar city-wide intelligent security system in 2007, as did the Phoenix Police Department during the 2008 Super Bowl.

Increased Homeland Security funding and technological advancements in security and wireless throughput have driven the accelerated adoption of wireless video surveillance systems among American cities.
Firetide is available to comment on how wireless mesh networks are proving to be a vital tool in public safety across the U.S., how federal, state and private funding are accelerating rollouts, and what factors are critical for success when deploying wireless video surveillance systems.